Can you hear me now?
Using the communications radio to verbally exchange information with people on the ground and, occasionally, other aviators in the air is a fundamental aviation skill. And I thought I was really on top of that skill, until I started flying internationally in a two-pilot airplane. I began to feel like I did many years ago when I was a student pilot, straining to understand the tinny, faceless voice flowing though the overhead speaker and into my ears-but not necessarily traveling all the way to the comprehension department in my brain.
Talking on the radio is one of the more challenging learning tasks facing a new student pilot. Few of us have any experience prior to flight training with the equipment and protocol involved in radio communications. It's all new.
The toughest aspect of using the radio, however, isn't the technology or the pilot/controller communication protocol. It's overcoming the natural shyness and embarrassment that come with knowing that, when you depress the mic button or push-to-talk switch, you are tapping into a party line. Everyone tuned to the frequency is now focused on you, listening to your hesitant "uhhhs" and "ummms," and generally making harsh judgments about your radio technique or, more accurately, the lack of it.
It's a tough crowd up there, or so it seems to the novice worried about talking on the radio. And it's not as if pilots who lack confidence in using the radio can go out to the airport and do some practice chatting in the same way that they can work on other basic flying techniques.
We get in some com practice when we're working on other skills just by virtue of having to talk to ATC or, at a nontowered airport, announcing our intentions on the unicom frequency. It's helpful, but it doesn't contribute to communications skills the same as doing circuits around the pattern contributes to landing skills.
Commercial software is available to learn and practice radio communications under simulated conditions, but absent that helpful head start, learning to communicate effectively is largely a matter of on-the-job training.
The tools that help us get the job done start with a good headset to minimize ambient noise and maximize the spoken word. A headset, however, is only as good as the com radio. Like the proverbial bad apple in the bunch, one bad radio on the frequency can create problems for everyone by preoccupying the controller. A poor radio also raises the stress level of the pilot who has to use it.
A simple thing like checking to make sure you've tuned the correct frequency before communicating helps to avoid an all-too-frequent and embarrassing problem. But the most important thing we can do to ensure good communications is to learn and practice proper radio protocol. Know what you are going to say to a controller before making the call, and what to expect in response. Anticipating the content and order of a controller's clearance is 75 percent of the task. Do that and you will enjoy relatively trouble-free communications.
Also, everyone using the frequency benefits when pilots keep their communications short and simple. Edit your messages to the essential information. Short and simple makes it easier for the recipient to hear and comprehend your transmission, and it frees up valuable space on the frequency for other pilots to get their business done.
Learning and practicing good radio technique is not just an issue for new pilots. The tower frequency at my home airport offers up regular evidence of poor communications performance by experienced pilots. In fact, the com radio is the medium for the biggest source of friction between pilots and controllers, and vice versa.
A few years ago the local pilots began to complain about the tower controllers at the airport. There were repeated incidents of controllers publicly-on the tower frequency-losing their temper with pilots. Pilots were berated for various communications infractions, and in some cases penalized by being told to hold outside our Class C airspace or make delaying maneuvers while other aircraft were given preferential treatment.
When we confronted the then-tower chief about the complaints, he reacted by playing a portion of a tape recording of one of his controllers attempting to issue an instrument clearance to a based pilot headed to the Bahamas. It was painful listening. The pilot massacred the first read-back of the clearance, so the controller-who was working solo in the tower cab-repeated it in full. Once again the pilot failed to read it back correctly, and once again the controller repeated it.
This drama continued over several attempts, with the controller obviously growing more frustrated. Occasionally he had to interrupt the increasingly contentious exchange to handle other traffic. The pilot eventually managed to read back a semblance of the clearance, and took off to who knows what fate. Fortunately, the weather was good because the pilot sounded incapable of dealing with the simplest of IFR procedures and communications.
His point in playing the tape was to demonstrate the incompetence his staff had to deal with on the other side of the mic.
Although there is almost never justification for a controller to become aggressively hostile toward a pilot, in this case it was easy to sympathize with the guy in the tower. Basic communications errors are expected from students, but not from pilots who possess at least a private certificate. We can be forgiven an occasional goof on radio procedures, but only occasionally.
International communications protocol was new to me when I started flying trips to Central America, and as a result I made more than my share of mistakes. For example, Cuban and Jamaican controllers require 10 minutes' prior notification from a pilot about to enter their country's airspace. Despite my best attempts to make the call exactly on time, I made mistakes. It's never been a problem in terms of gaining entry to foreign airspace, but it's a formal, published procedure that should be followed.
Even a small detail, like whether to address a country's air traffic control facility as "Control" or "Center," is important-both to practice professionalism and also to show due respect to that country's controllers.
Pilots also must make required position reports according to a strict protocol. This is necessary because radar may not be available, and accurate position reports from pilots become the primary means for controllers to separate traffic. With such an obvious safety issue at stake, position reports take on huge importance and had better be delivered correctly.
Achieving confidence in communication skills doesn't mean we can stop trying to do it even better. There's always something new to learn.
Mark Twombly is a writer and editor who has flown for 35 years. He is a commercial pilot with instrument and multiengine ratings and co-owner of a Piper Twin Comanche.
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